Browse Data and Analysis

On August 2-4, 2023, the World Apple and Pear Association (WAPA) presented the 2023 EU apple and pear crop forecast at the 48th edition of the Prognosfruit convention.

Post forecasts marketing year 2023/24 production at 1.1 million 480-bales, a 30 percent decline compared to the previous year due to higher input costs and lack of access to new genetically engineered seed varieties.

In MY 2023/24, EU production of peaches and nectarines is estimated to amount to 3.6 million MT while cherry production is anticipated to amount to 657,435 MT.

For marketing year (MY) 2022/23, Post revises fresh lemon production estimates to 1.65 million metric tons (MMT), down 6.5 percent from the official USDA estimate due to continued adverse weather and poor economic conditions, especially for smaller producers.

Bioethanol consumption in 2023 is forecast at 1.17 billion liters, the highest on record, because of strong gasoline demand and a high blend rate.

U.S. rough rice exports have plummeted and the decline of Costa Rican rice production has accelerated sharply following the Government of Costa Rica’s August 2022 tariff rate reduction on imported rice from all origins.

In 2022, EU wood pellet consumption hit a new record of 24.8 million metric tons (MMT) mainly due to increased residential use.

Chilean cherry area planted reached 61,599 hectares (ha) in marketing year (MY) 2022/23. Post projects that MY 2023/24 cherry production will reach 500,000 metric tons (MT), which represents a 6.6 percent increase over MY 2022/23.

The Canadian hemp sector continues to be driven by the food and nutrition markets, despite the 2018 regulatory changes that legalized recreational cannabis, and opened the potential for new markets for hemp-extracted cannabinoids.

Canada’s Clean Fuel Regulation (CFR) became law on July 6, 2022. It aims to reduce the carbon intensity of liquid transportation fuels and has the potential to increase the use of low carbon-intensity diesel by an additional 2.2 billion liters and the use of ethanol by an additional 700 million liters by 2030 under the CFR, according to the federal government.

With the gradual lifting of the lockdowns, and recovering economies, consumption of bioethanol and biobased diesel (BBD) are estimated to have increased by respectively 6.1 percent and 0.6 percent in 2022.

On July 28, 2023, the Government of Mexico (GOM) notified a revised NOM-187 to the World Trade Organization and opened a 60-day comment period. NOM-187 establishes the sanitary and commercial requirements for products made from nixtamalized corn and for the establishments that produce these products.